how to chek for the number of options in an app

how to chek for the number of options in an app

[Ned]

Hi all,
Is there a way to check, without counting by hand within the manual, how many options are there for a command such as ls, more, bash, etc?
If not, what's the shortest way of doing that through the man?

Many thanks in advance!
Ned

Re: how to chek for the number of options in an app

[Sean McMahon]

commands usually start with - or -- so you could type command --help, where
command is the name of the command you are looking for, pipe that through grep
for the string '-' or '--' then pipe that through wc.  That might give you some
idea I'd look at the help or man pages first to see the syntax of how they show
you options so you can see how to grep for a sensible search string.  This
sounds like some kind of tricky way to answer some random exam question?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ned" <ngranic@cox.net>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 1:19 PM
Subject: how to chek for the number of options in an app


Hi all,
Is there a way to check, without counting by hand within the manual, how many
options are there for a command such as ls, more, bash, etc?
If not, what's the shortest way of doing that through the man?

Many thanks in advance!
Ned
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

RE: how to chek for the number of options in an app

[Sina Bahram]

Hmm, this isn't terribly accurate, but try this

ls --help | wc -l

Take care,
Sina

-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]
On Behalf Of Ned
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 3:19 PM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: how to chek for the number of options in an app

Hi all,
Is there a way to check, without counting by hand within the manual, how
many options are there for a command such as ls, more, bash, etc?
If not, what's the shortest way of doing that through the man?

Many thanks in advance!
Ned
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

RE: how to chek for the number of options in an app

[Sina Bahram]

Hi ned,

... To go back to what I said before, try playing with grep, so you could at
least set up a regular expression for only the lines that have commands on
them ...

Take care,
Sina 

-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]
On Behalf Of Ned
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 3:19 PM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: how to chek for the number of options in an app

Hi all,
Is there a way to check, without counting by hand within the manual, how
many options are there for a command such as ls, more, bash, etc?
If not, what's the shortest way of doing that through the man?

Many thanks in advance!
Ned
_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: how to chek for the number of options in an app

[Ned]

Thanks Sina,

In your first post you said:
ls --help | wc -l
Wouldn't it only count the number of lines within the help file of the ls 
command?
The grep is a much better idea, I tried something like:
ls --help | grep -c '-'
and it returned 51 because it counted both '-' and '--', but don't know how 
to ... is there a logical or operator for situations like this?
I want to check for '-' or '--'
How to do that?

Many thanks!
Ned
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram@nc.rr.com>
To: "'Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.'" 
<speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 11:28 PM
Subject: RE: how to chek for the number of options in an app


> Hi ned,
>
> ... To go back to what I said before, try playing with grep, so you could 
> at
> least set up a regular expression for only the lines that have commands on
> them ...
>
> Take care,
> Sina
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca 
> [mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]
> On Behalf Of Ned
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 3:19 PM
> To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> Subject: how to chek for the number of options in an app
>
> Hi all,
> Is there a way to check, without counting by hand within the manual, how
> many options are there for a command such as ls, more, bash, etc?
> If not, what's the shortest way of doing that through the man?
>
> Many thanks in advance!
> Ned
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

RE: how to chek for the number of options in an app

[Sina Bahram]

Hi Ned,

About the ls -l | wc -l thing: yeh totally man: I just forgot to mention
grep in the first email ...

And about the '-' thing: well, that's true; however, don't the '-' and '--'
appear on the same line anyways? If they do, then why does it matter?

Oh, and to answer your question:

The regular expression: '-+' would check for 1 or more occurances of '-'
consecutively

Take care,
Sina

-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]
On Behalf Of Ned
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 2:03 AM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: how to chek for the number of options in an app

Thanks Sina,

In your first post you said:
ls --help | wc -l
Wouldn't it only count the number of lines within the help file of the ls
command?
The grep is a much better idea, I tried something like:
ls --help | grep -c '-'
and it returned 51 because it counted both '-' and '--', but don't know how
to ... is there a logical or operator for situations like this?
I want to check for '-' or '--'
How to do that?

Many thanks!
Ned
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram@nc.rr.com>
To: "'Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.'" 
<speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 11:28 PM
Subject: RE: how to chek for the number of options in an app


> Hi ned,
>
> ... To go back to what I said before, try playing with grep, so you could 
> at
> least set up a regular expression for only the lines that have commands on
> them ...
>
> Take care,
> Sina
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca 
> [mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]
> On Behalf Of Ned
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 3:19 PM
> To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> Subject: how to chek for the number of options in an app
>
> Hi all,
> Is there a way to check, without counting by hand within the manual, how
> many options are there for a command such as ls, more, bash, etc?
> If not, what's the shortest way of doing that through the man?
>
> Many thanks in advance!
> Ned
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 


_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: how to chek for the number of options in an app

[Sean McMahon]

Some commands have a -- some have a -.  Other times --option is synonomous
with -otheroption.  You have to look at each command's options to get a good
grep.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram@nc.rr.com>
To: "'Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.'" <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 12:08 AM
Subject: RE: how to chek for the number of options in an app


> Hi Ned,
>
> About the ls -l | wc -l thing: yeh totally man: I just forgot to mention
> grep in the first email ...
>
> And about the '-' thing: well, that's true; however, don't the '-' and '--'
> appear on the same line anyways? If they do, then why does it matter?
>
> Oh, and to answer your question:
>
> The regular expression: '-+' would check for 1 or more occurances of '-'
> consecutively
>
> Take care,
> Sina
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]
> On Behalf Of Ned
> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2005 2:03 AM
> To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> Subject: Re: how to chek for the number of options in an app
>
> Thanks Sina,
>
> In your first post you said:
> ls --help | wc -l
> Wouldn't it only count the number of lines within the help file of the ls
> command?
> The grep is a much better idea, I tried something like:
> ls --help | grep -c '-'
> and it returned 51 because it counted both '-' and '--', but don't know how
> to ... is there a logical or operator for situations like this?
> I want to check for '-' or '--'
> How to do that?
>
> Many thanks!
> Ned
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sina Bahram" <sbahram@nc.rr.com>
> To: "'Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.'"
> <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 11:28 PM
> Subject: RE: how to chek for the number of options in an app
>
>
> > Hi ned,
> >
> > ... To go back to what I said before, try playing with grep, so you could
> > at
> > least set up a regular expression for only the lines that have commands on
> > them ...
> >
> > Take care,
> > Sina
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca
> > [mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]
> > On Behalf Of Ned
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 3:19 PM
> > To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> > Subject: how to chek for the number of options in an app
> >
> > Hi all,
> > Is there a way to check, without counting by hand within the manual, how
> > many options are there for a command such as ls, more, bash, etc?
> > If not, what's the shortest way of doing that through the man?
> >
> > Many thanks in advance!
> > Ned
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: how to chek for the number of options in an app

[Lorenzo Taylor]

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Ah!  I think I got it!  Try this:

lorenzo@taylor:~$ ls --help |grep [-][-] |wc -l
44
lorenzo@taylor:~$

Note, though, that this only seems to work on commands where every short option
(-o) has a corresponding long option (--option).  You will need to look at the -h
or --help option first to see how the options may be specified and then tailor
the grep expression to fit the specific command.

Lorenzo
- -- 
"We decided that we should evaluate the Microsoft offerings first. Once we
realised what a powerful set of tools they were, it became self-evident this was
the right way to go down."

Microsoft: the right way to go down
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